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  tea » archives ยป May 18, 2010 email:  

Topics

  1. May Monthly Member Meeting
  2. WW Bargaining
  3. PERC Staff Reductions
  4. Meeting and Event Calendar

1. May Monthly Member Meeting

Reminder that the May member meeting is scheduled for Wed., 5/19, from 12-1 in KSC 5B&C


2. WW Bargaining

Wastewater Bargaining Update

The next mediation session for the wastewater supervisors is May 19th.

The wastewater staff bargaining committee has been meeting once per month since March. At the last meeting on May 11th the committee nominated Mark Lucas and Alton Gaskill to be members of the negotiating team with Roger Browne, John Phillips and Jim Cline.

We have four topics to take to the bargaining table:

We are not sure what the County's position will be so we will schedule a short first time bargaining session for June and see what is proposed. The strategy to respond will be deliberated by the bargaining committee after the first bargaining session.

Bargaining Committee members are;
- John Phillips (Chair)
- Alton Gaskill
- Mark Lucas
- Keven Sandquist
- Robin Robinson
- Shahrzad Namini
- Casey Plank
- Wyatt Wood


3. PERC Staff Reductions

Thought you might be interested in this recent letter on PERC's web site from their Executive Director. This might help explain the delay in PERC's making a decision on the County's appeal of their decision of our ULP's relative to furloughs.

May 3, 2010

Dear All:

Thank you to those who attended the annual Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) conference on April 29 and 30 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. The conference provides a wonderful opportunity to exchange information and learn from each other. In keeping with a long tradition, this year's conference was a huge success.

Special thanks to PERC Adjudicator/Mediators Christy Yoshitomi, Lisa Hartrich, and Guy Coss who worked tirelessly throughout the year with the planning committees from our sister agencies, the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, to develop the program and oversee all the details it takes to present such a comprehensive conference. I would also like to thank PERC staff members Joye Rolfer, Robbie Duffield and Mitch Nelson for contributing their time and talent preparing signs, seeing that everybody was registered, and making sure that the electronic equipment performed as it should. Hats off to other PERC staff who served as room monitors and otherwise helped keep the conference moving smoothly.

In other agency news, PERC has experienced significant changes. Having suffered a $1.3 million blow to our budget for the biennium, some tough decisions were in order. The agency had to lay off a legal secretary, a research analyst and our business manager - positions which are permanently lost. Additionally, we saw the departure of four adjudicator/mediators due to retirements and resignations: Starr Knutson, Paul Schwendiman, Sally Carpenter, and Terry Wilson.

With concurrence by the Commission, it is my goal to focus resources on direct service to clientele. Even with a rising case load and declining funds, I intend to fully staff the adjudicator/mediator positions. In keeping with this objective, Special Projects Manager Ken Latsch has returned to the field. Although I will miss his contributions to the management team, the agency could no longer afford the special projects manager position. Ken is a talented and gifted mediator/adjudicator whose experience and expertise are welcomed by the clientele. In addition to Ken, Adjudicator/Mediators Philip Huang and Steve Irvin joined our staff in January.
Despite the rising case load and the complexity of cases before us, due to the talent and extraordinary efforts made by PERC staff and supervisors, I can proudly say that there is no backlog in the preliminary ruling process, mediation requests receive immediate attention, and most decisions are issuing within APA guidelines.


4. Meeting and Event Calendar

May 19 - TEA Monthly Member Meeting, 12-1pm, KSC 5B C
May 22 - Salmon Bake - Benefit for KC  Councilmember Larry Philips
               Discovery Park Daybreak Star Cultural Center, 1-4pm
May 25 - TEA Grievance Committee
May 26 - TEA Council of Reps Meeting, 12-1pm, 6th Flr KSC, King/Chinook

TEA Board

Roger Browne, President
Adé Franklin, Vice President
Ken Madden, Secretary
Terry Browne, Treasurer
John Phillips, Wastewater Bargaining Chair
Jerry Williams, Transit Bargaining Chair
Jan Knudson, Council of Reps. Chair